April 30th, 2012

Grub Street News

Welcome to the latest installment of the Grub Street Rag, a newsletter of the Boston literary scene brought to you by the staff in the center of the tornado at Grub Street's World Headquarters. As always, if you are receiving this email in horror, please advance to the bottom of the page to unsubscribe yourself.

Keep Writing: Multi-Week Workshops Begin in May

If you think our Spring schedule couldn't possibly have more to offer you, you'd be wrong. Starting in May, we've got a whole new array of multi-week workshops, including Screenwriting II: Beyond Hollywood Structure, 6 Weeks, 6 Poetic Forms, Meditation and Writing, Jumpstart Your Writing, and Poetry: Revising the Words. Visit our website to sign up today.

The Muse is Sold Out, But You Can Still Be a Part of the Weekend

Even if you can't come to the Muse conference, you can still join us for two great (and free!) events on Saturday, May 5th. First, join us from 5:30-7pm for an illuminating lecture by digital-publishing visionary Richard Nash. Then, there's time for a quick snack before you return at 8:15 for a reading and reception featuring the non-fiction and fiction winners of Grub's National Book Prize. Free refreshments and a cash bar will be available at this fun event. Details below and on our website.

Find the Muse on Facebook and Twitter

Follow Muse 2012 on Facebook and Twitter and receive real-time updates, reminders, and Grubbies' thoughts on the workshops and panels both before and during the conference. To get Facebook updates, just RSVP on the Facebook event page. To join the Twitter conversation, follow these easy steps:

1. Search for @GrubWriters on Twitter and click "Follow."
2. Searching for the #Muse2012 hashtag will show you a constant flow of updates from Grub staff, presenters, and writers attending the conference.
3. To contribute your thoughts, simply include #Muse2012 anywhere in your 140-character update.
4. Want to hang out in 3D with your fellow Tweeters? During the Meet & Greet on Saturday at the conference, one corner of the Plaza Ballroom (Mezzanine level) will be reserved for a "Tweet-Up." Look for the poster with the big blue bird!

The Drum's Museflash

Cheers,
Whitney, Sonya, Eve, Chris, Rowan, Sean and Lauren

The P.S.: The Grub office will have extremely limited staffing on Friday, May 4th and Monday, May 7th, as we prepare for (and then recover from) the Muse.

Grub Events

In addition to our ongoing workshops, Grub Street offers numerous writing-related events around town. See our website for a long-term view of all we do.

LECTURE: Saturday, May 5th, 5:30-7pm, "Don't Get Left Behind: New Opportunities for Writers" with Richard Nash
Part of Grub Street's Publish It Forward lecture series, funded by the NEA. What does it mean to be a writer in a world where seemingly everyone is a writer? Richard Nash, serial entrepreneur, maverick, and student of books and media, draws on legal, economic and intellectual history, on his experience running iconic indie Soft Skull Press, and on his start-ups Small Demons, Red Lemonade and Cursor to offer writers a new framework for understanding the business of writing and the culture of reading. You will leave with a new perspective on the incredible range of opportunities now available to writers which will enable you to make the best possible choices in your own life and career. Registered Muse and the Marketplace attendees do not need to register for this session; they may simply come. The event is also open to the public.
Instructor: Richard Nash
FREE, Boston Park Plaza Hotel, 50 Park Plaza at Arlington Street, Boston

READING: Saturday, May 5th, 8:15-9:30pm, National Book Prize Reading & Reception with Wendy Call and Eileen Pollack
Join us for a festive reading and reception to honor Wendy Call and Eileen Pollack, the most recent winners of the Grub Street National Book Prize. Non-Fiction winner Wendy Call of Seattle will read from No Word for Welcome: The Mexican Village Faces the Global Economy, and Fiction winner Eileen Pollack of Ann Arbor will read from her novel, Breaking and Entering. Margot Livesey and Michelle Seaton will introduce the authors.
The Grub Street Book Prize is awarded once annually to an American writer outside New England publishing his or her second, third, fourth (or beyond) book. First books are not eligible. Writers whose primary residence is Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut or Rhode Island are also not eligible. Click here for more information.
FREE, Boston Park Plaza Hotel, 50 Park Plaza at Arlington Street, Boston.

DAYTIME SEMINAR: Friday, May 11th, 11:00am-2:00pm, How to Write Riveting Scenes
The key to any unforgettable work of prose resides in the quality of its scenes. In this workshop, we'll look at some of the best scenes ever written, and investigate what it takes to write a scene that keeps readers on the edge of their seats. We'll also do an in-class exercise (or two) to see if we can improve the tension and emotional impact of our own scenes.
Instructor: Steve Almond
$65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ.

DAYTIME SEMINAR: Friday, May 11th, 11:00am-2:00pm, Yoga and Writing
The goal of this unique seminar is to let our inner writer flow using breath, guided meditation, movement, and all-inclusive awareness of self in order to access our creative muse, and continue to develop our authentic voice. We will begin with a free-write and a discussion of techniques for creating grounding, vibrant imagery. We will then dive deep with a prompted Proprioceptive writing exercise in order to “Write the Mind Alive,” using our stream of consciousness to create mindful transitions in our writing, invoke the senses, and create powerful direct experience for our readers. We will also spend time grounding into our physical bodies using breath and yoga in order to write from a body-centered space. Finally, we will discuss ways of using breath and movement to address writer’s block, and will learn some therapeutic exercises and take home tools for easing the cramped fingers, hands, and shoulders that exist as the by-product of our passionate love affair with our life’s work: our writing. Note: A yoga mat is needed for this course, but no prior yoga experience. Please wear comfortable clothes to class that you can do gentle movements in.
Instructor: Lindsey O'Neill
$65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ.

DAYTIME SEMINAR: Friday, May 11th, 11:00am-2:00pm, Crafting the Pitch Letter for Nonfiction Projects
In this seminar, you will learn how to write killer pitch letters (AKA “query letters” or “cover letters”) for submitting essays, op-eds, articles and feature stories to editors of magazines, newspapers, literary magazines, and online publications, and for submitting nonfiction book proposals to agents. (Sorry, we won’t discuss how to pitch short fiction or novels.) We'll look at top mistakes that writers make and examine pitch letters that actually worked. We'll also see how to leverage your background and expertise to best present yourself, even if you don't have a lot of publishing experience. Optional: Bring 15 copies of a draft of any pitch letter (it’s OK if you’re not sure how to write one) for a piece you are currently working on and we’ll try to quickly workshop as many of them as we can.
Instructor: Ethan Gilsdorf
$65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ.

DAYTIME SEMINAR: Friday, May 11th, 11:00am-2:00pm, Surviving the Slush Pile
Ever wonder what happens after you click submit and your story is sent through cyberspace to a literary magazine? This course, led by a journal editor and author, will take you through the maze of the submissions process from submissions peccadilloes to editorial hallelujahs. We’ll take a close look at opening lines and final paragraphs through the lens of narrative; and we’ll also talk about cover letters, bios, and story format. Relying on exercises and prompts, our focus in the second half will be on stirring up our creative minds and sending you – and your work, into the world of publication. Please bring a copy of a story you are working on; we'll use it for an in-class exercise. Instructor: Catherine Parnell
$65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ.

MEMBER EVENT: Saturday, May 12th, 12:00pm to 2:00pm, Grub Street Book Club
The Grub Book Club offers a chance to read and discuss great books with a focus on reading from a writer's perspective. The book club's next pick is the novel The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. Jonathan Franzen wrote that "reading The Art of Fielding is like watching a hugely gifted young shortstop: you keep waiting for the errors, but there are no errors. First novels this complete and consuming come along very, very seldom." For more information or to join our book club please contact sean@grubstreet.org. MUST BE A CURRENT GRUB STREET MEMBER TO ATTEND. MEMBERS MAY BRING FRIENDS.
Instructor: TBA
Grub Street HQ.

WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, May 19th, 10:00am-5:00pm, Prose That Packs a Punch
Ever notice that the difference between published prose and prose that languishes in draft form is often how robust the sentences feel—how, in the former, sentences seem to do so much more work? Often, the distinction lies in the specificity of the prose, with weak prose suffering from generic, plural language and strong prose shining with acute specificity. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll use Carol Bly’s technique of empathetic questioning to identify moments of vague prose in our drafts and turn that vague, nonspecific prose into prose that packs more character-creating, world-defining specificity into every page. We’ll do exercises designed to help us further define our characters (be they fictional or real) and settings and then plug that new information directly into our drafts, rewriting throughout the day. This course is appropriate for writers of both fiction and memoir, and all exercises will be adaptable to both. Come prepared with one or two drafts you wish to work directly on, as well as a pen and a notebook you’re comfortable writing in at length.
Instructor: Alexandria Marzano- Lesnevich
$95/$115 members, Grub Street HQ.

WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, May 19th, 10:00am-5:00pm, Point of View Intensive
Point of view is one of the most important decisions you'll make about your story or novel. In this class, we'll survey your options with examples from literature, from the old-fashioned omniscient narrator to modern first-person present, and discuss the consequences of each. We'll discuss free-indirect style, psychic distance, and a host of other related topics. And we'll do exercises designed to try out various points of view and see your own work from different angles. Come to class with a short story or a section of your novel.
Instructor: Chip Cheek
$95/$115 members, Grub Street HQ.

WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, May 19th, 10:30 am- 5:30 pm, Poetry Revision Clinic
Perhaps the most difficult acts of writing are the acts of revision. How do we know when a poem is finished? How do we know what should change and what should remain? In the first half of this seminar we'll take a hard look at some revisions of some more well-known poems to articulate a working definition of revision, to observe the choices involved in the making of great poems, and to develop a list of principles by which to revise our poems. In the seminar's second half we'll apply these principles to our work. Participants are expected to bring a poem that they would like to revise, which they'll work on and have the opportunity to share at the seminar's end. Participants can also expect to leave the seminar with more examples of revision to examine on their own.
Instructor: Scott Challener
$95/$115 members, Grub Street HQ.

WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, May 19th, 9:30 am- 4:30 pm, Writing Dialogue
This workshop is designed for playwrights, screenwriters, novelists, and short fiction writers interested in writing crisp, realistic-sounding dialogue. We will study several great scenes from films, plays, and fiction to break down what makes the dialogue so effective. Students will write scenes, receive feedback and then rewrite the scene to make the dialogue stronger. Topics explored will include creating subtext, hiding exposition, working with slang, and how to get the characters in your head speaking with a voice of their own. You will learn how to break down a scene into beats and intentions, and approach the scene as an actor would. Most importantly, during the workshop portion, we will act out your dialogue so you may hear it the way dialogue is meant to be heard-– out loud.
Instructor: Mark Fogarty
$95/$115 members, Grub Street HQ.

WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, May 19th, 10:30 am- 5:30 pm, Selfauthor-ity
If you are alive, you have stories that are aching to be told. Good writing—or, true writing—comes from a place of self-authority. You are the expert on your life experiences, carrying a vision of the world that is uniquely yours. In this seminar, we will explore methods of accessing the authentic voice, as well as ways to become your own best reader. In close readings of published autobiographical work, we will explore the concepts of perspective and voice. Please bring a short piece (up to three pages) to share with the group. Whether you’re knee-deep in a memoir or interested in exploring other forms of personal writing, this seminar will help you help you uncover the most appropriate, creatively fulfilling ways to express your autobiographical narratives.
Instructor: Suzanne Guillette
$95/$115 members, Grub Street HQ.

EVENT: Thursday, May 24th, 11:00am-1:00pm, Speech! Elements of Successful Speech-Writing
For non-fiction writers, platform is key. Agents look for it. Publishers require it. But what is it? In a nutshell it’s proving yourself an expert in your field, and giving speeches is part of the process. This course will help you develop successful speeches, covering everything from creating learning objectives to researching subjects, from how to estimate the length of your speech by its word count to personalizing dry statistics. We’ll view different examples of effective uses of rhetorical techniques like anaphora and epistrophe. We’ll have in-class writing assignments and critique of some of your speech introductions. Bring your topic (or just an idea.) My goal is for each writer to leave with an effective opening, a compelling closing and a solid strategy for tackling the body of your speech. Though the course will focus on the writing, we’ll spend time on tips for dynamic delivery and suggestions for prepping for that Q&A. $3 donation suggested.
Instructor: Carolyn Roy-Bornstein
FREE, Grub Street HQ.

EVENT: Wednesday, May 23rd, 12:30pm-1:15pm, Brown Bag Lunch Series
Do you work downtown and want to fit some writing into your day? Or do you have a schedule that gives you free afternoons instead of evenings? Bring your lunch and come on over to Grub Street for a Brown Bag Writing Workshop – a series recently profiled in the Boston Globe. For 45 minutes, you’ll meet fellow writers and get your creative juices flowing with some cool writing exercises. Led by one of our award-winning instructors or ambassadors. Best of all, you’ll leave lunch with some new ideas to ponder for the rest of your day, and beyond. No need to RSVP-- just come!
Instructor: Jeremy Lakaszcyck
FREE, Grub Street HQ.

Be sure to check out our website for a comprehensive view of upcoming events.

Spreading the Love

Grub Street wants to promote YOU! Please send events for consideration to whitney@grubstreet.org. Bonus points and undying gratitude for submitting your event info in the same format as the events below. Our apologies in advance if we cannot fit you in. Please note that we do the best we can to evaluate requests, and do privilege requests from members, but cannot be held responsible for the quality of these events and programs or the legitimacy of contests. We expect that readers will do their own due diligence before sending their work or their money to any individual or organization.

--Call for Submissions: Thick Jam
Thick Jam, a new online flash fiction magazine, is seeking beautifully written stories that stick, stories that we can’t turn away from. Please send your 90-900 word masterpieces to Andrew at thickjam@gmail.com, or see the listing on Duotrope. All genres except poetry or erotica considered. If you have any questions, you may also contact Alexa Kontes at Alexa@thickjam.com.

--NETWORKING AND OPEN MIC: Thursday, May 24th, 8:30pm, Boston LGBT Writer's Network
The Boston LGBT Writer's Network is a brand new community dedicated to supporting poets, writers, playwrights, screenwriters, graphic novelists, and translators at all stages in their craft. We will host readings and discussion groups throughout the year at the MALE Center, 571 Columbus Ave Boston. Please join us for our first event on Thursday, May 24 at 8:30 pm, where we will kick off with an evening of "open-mic" readings followed by a discussion of the works performed. All are welcome to share their work, in any genre. Light refreshments, snacks, and good company will be provided! But first, come and join our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/BostonLGBTWritersNetwork for special updates, announcements, and news from fellow LGBT poets and writers!
FREE, the MALE Center, 571 Columbus Ave Boston.

--PUBLISHING: Saturday, May 12th, 10:30am, Meet the Agent: A conversation with literary agent Caroline Zimmerman
Caroline Zimmerman, agent at the prominent Boston-based Kneerim & Williams Agency (www.kwlit.com), will share her thoughts about the book publishing industry and what it takes to acquire an agent. Her talk will be followed by a Q&A. If you’re looking for an agent, you don’t want to miss this event! Sponsored by WNBA Boston the National Writers Union Boston Chapter.
FREE, Coolidge Corner Branch Library, 31 Pleasant St., Brookline

--READING: Tuesday, May 8th, 7pm, David Bezmozgis
David Bezmozgis, author of The Free World: A Novel reads at Newtonville Books' new location in Newton Centre.
FREE, Newtonville Books, 10 Langley Road, Newton Centre, MA 02459.

--WORKSHOP: Berkshire Writing Workshop
Long-time Grub instructor Alison Lobron is excited to be directing the Berkshire Writing Workshop, a new week-long summer writing program in Great Barrington, Mass. For a limited time, the BWW is offering a 10 percent discount just for Grub members! With classes in Fiction and Memoir, the workshop offers a great opportunity to get lots of writing done while enjoying a week in the lovely Berkshires at the height of summer season.  (Think Tanglewood, Jacob's Pillow. . . and, yes, writing too!)  The program runs from July 8 to July 13. See more details at www.simons-rock.edu/berkshire-writing-workshop. Grub members: Please make sure to identify yourself on the registration form. Questions? Email Alison at alison@alisonlobron.com.

--LAST CHANCE TO SUBMIT: Fugue's 11th Annual Prose and Poetry Contest
Grub note: We just heard that submissions are low for this contest, which has a prize of $1000. Submissions will be accepted through May 1, 2012. To read submission guidelines, click here: http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/fugue/contest.html. Please note that the contest entry fee is $15, which covers the cost of reading ONE submission. Judges: Pam Houston (prose) Rodney Jones (poetry) The Prize: First place winners receive $1,000, publication and a year's subscription. Runners-up will be considered for publication and will receive a year's subscription.